


brand new world

by gayheroine



Category: Hololive, Virtual Streamer Animated Characters
Genre: Cuddling, F/F, Fluff, Forehead Kisses, Friends to Lovers, Light Angst, Love Confessions, Making Out, Tickling, kinda. maybe a bit of pain, too many feelings about this concert...so heres some fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-15 07:54:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29555949
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/gayheroine/pseuds/gayheroine
Summary: "it's just me." kiara's voice gets softer. "and look—" her thumb brushes under calli's eye. "you're crying,liebling."calli finally breaks the cycle.
Relationships: Mori Calliope/Takanashi Kiara
Comments: 25
Kudos: 244





	brand new world

**Author's Note:**

> or, a closer look at the takamori trip

Sometimes, Calli marvels at how she used to reap souls. 

She would rather _her_ soul be reaped than tell anyone when her mind goes down this track. Of course, she most definitely hasn’t forgotten how to do it, nor has she unlearned the heavy lessons of Death. 

(Don’t get it twisted. She hasn’t grown soft or anything.)

But at times like this, when the head of the largest annoyance of her old (and possibly current) life is pillowed on her thighs inside the cozy hotel room Calli _herself_ had booked for just the two of them...

She marvels. 

The annoyance in question looks so...serene. It’s like Calli’s thighs are the most comfortable pillow on earth. And Calli is sure that isn’t true, or else all pillows would be thigh-shaped, and they are very clearly not thigh-shaped or anything like it. 

In spite of the urge to look away and take a swig of her wine—if only for the momentary mental silence—her eyes linger on the phoenix who looks for all the world like she’d like nothing more than to stay here forever. 

_If Kiara was awake and could read Calli’s mind, she probably_ would _say she wants to stay here forever._

The thought makes something squeeze tight in Calli’s chest. Screw her traitorous mind. Unscrewing the cap of her bottle quickly, Calli brings it up to her lips for a quick few gulps. 

Then she hears a noise—somewhere between a whimper and a groan—and almost drops the bottle on the sheets. Her cheeks flame and she looks down at the phoenix stirring in her lap.

“Calli?” Kiara asks, voice softened by sleep. It’s _cute_ and does nothing to help Calli’s burning cheeks. “What?”

“Um.” 

Kiara yawns widely and turns on her side so she’s snuggling into Calli’s stomach. “I mean,” she says, voice muffled by Calli’s shirt. “I’m not complaining, but...”

“You—you fell asleep!” Calli stammers, ignores how Kiara’s lips on her stomach makes it plunge to the floor. 

Kiara hums. “And I just ended up on your lap?” She turns on her back and waggles her eyebrows at Calli, a glint in her eyes. 

“No—I...guh!” Calli is _not_ going to elaborate on how she laid Kiara down on her lap because Kiara was twitching in her sleep and the angle her head was at on the arm of the couch looked immensely uncomfortable. And how the pained expression on Kiara’s face hurt her heart. Just a little. 

She’s sure Kiara put the pieces together, anyway. 

“Don’t play dumb, and get off me,” Calli mumbles, prodding Kiara’s shoulder. 

“Awww, Calli loves me!” Kiara singsongs as she rolls off Calli’s lap, back on her side of the couch. “After all this time, she loves me back~“

Calli studies Kiara. 

She knows the sadness in the slight twist of Kiara’s lips. She knows the longing in her gaze, knows it’s still there when Kiara turns away from Calli to reach for her orange soda. 

She’s not oblivious. The truth? Calli is a coward who tethers the feelings in her own chest to the ground with an apprehension she knows she can’t fully justify. But recently...

Kiara finishes off her orange soda with an appreciative sigh, and a smile automatically comes to Calli’s lips. She’s always found Kiara’s penchant for orange soda over alcohol incredibly endearing. When Kiara turns back to her, Calli’s tamed her expression back to neutrality with practiced ease. 

Normally she doesn’t slip up like that, but it’s been getting harder and harder to keep ahold of herself. Between seemingly _everyone—_ or at the very least, tens of thousands of people—talking about Takamori, Kiara’s increased presence in her life, and moments like this, Calli’s having difficulty squelching the sickeningly sweet, fluttering feelings that rise to the surface in her worst moments of weakness. 

Especially today. Her first drink of the trip hadn’t helped any, and the trip really has felt like one big, grand date. Calli would be lying if just the idea didn’t make her heart do really weird things. Like tap dancing. Or acrobatics. Or some other way too energetic activity. 

A hand in her face breaks her out of her reverie. “Yoohoo, Calli.” Kiara waves her hand in front of Calli’s face. “Do you want to keep watching the movie?”

Calli blinks. She’d forgotten about it completely. “I dunno. Do you want to?”

Kiara hums and tilts her head, thoughtful. “Nope,” she finally responds. “I’d rather just talk to you!”

Calli rolls her eyes. “Well, guess it’s time for me to get drunk so I don’t have to listen to you.”

“You’re smiling,” Kiara says with a grin. 

“Am not.” She really is smiling, damn this wine. 

“Are too!”

“Am not!” Calli tries to school her mouth into a frown. It doesn’t cooperate. 

“Are too!” Kiara holds her hands up, waggling her fingers. “Do I need to use these to make you admit it?”

Calli flushes. “What—“

She’s cut off by a mouthful of orange phoenix hair when Kiara dives at her. Calli only has the sense to set her wine down on the table before light, playful fingers run up and down her sides. 

Oh no.

“Ki—ara!” Calli manages around her laughs. “That’s...not fair!”

Kiara grins up at her. “Are you gonna admit you were smiling because of me now?”

Unfair, completely unfair! But Calli is stubborn, and something as harmless as tickling can’t make her lose this battle. “I—wasn’t,” she chokes out. Calli thrashes, tries to get away from Kiara’s horrible, terrible, no good hands, but the phoenix won’t let her. 

“You can’t escape me, Calli!”

Kiara is laughing too—probably at how ridiculous Calli looks—and even in her tickle-induced stupor Calli thinks it’s adorable. 

Kiara’s right. There’s no way she can escape the phoenix, and the grip Kiara has on her is too tight for Calli to break with strength alone. 

She has to shock Kiara into loosening her grip so Calli can squirm away. A headbutt is about all Calli can do right now, and that’ll have to do.

But actually...it would hurt Kiara, and might hurt her as well. Even if neither of them would die—not that they can—it would still hurt like a bitch. Maybe she won’t after all.

She hears a sharp intake of breath, and the tickling onslaught stops. Her forehead touches something...warm. 

Calli opens her eyes to stare into Kiara’s. She’s frozen, just staring at Calli. 

Shit. Her treacherous heart really did it this time. Calli can’t do anything but use all her willpower to stare back and keep her eyes from betraying her. (Kiara's lips always look very kissable, and that's when she isn't centimeters from actually kissing them.)

In this moment, Calli deduces that she has exactly two options. 

One, Calli could pull back, play it off. They could slip back into playful banter and sipping their drinks while talking about anything and everything under the sun. And beyond that, they could continue their same cycle of Kiara chasing after Calli for years, leaving Calli alone when she dies, then reviving and _(hopefully)_ remembering her, and so on.

But unlike Kiara, Calli can't forget. She won’t be able to forget the desperate hope in Kiara’s eyes right now. She won’t be able to ignore the sadness that will weigh Kiara’s shoulders down for the rest of the night. And she knows she won’t be able to rinse down the bitter taste of her own disappointment, no matter how much wine she drinks. 

Kiara’s breath fans across Calli’s lips. Warm. So warm. That’s her phoenix—warm and alive and the opposite of everything Calli’s ever known. And Calli adores her for it.

Before she knows it, she’s moving—tilting her mouth up as Kiara stays stock-still and then Calli’s fumbling an arm around the back of Kiara’s neck and hastily pulling her in close.

The softness of Kiara’s lips makes Calli’s heart jump into her throat. They feel so _good_. And it feels even better when Kiara snaps out of whatever haze she’s in and her lips start to move, body coming flush with Calli’s. 

She’s enthusiastic—no surprise there—and Calli feels herself being slowly pushed back against the couch. Despite herself, she smiles against Kiara’s lips. 

She should have done this a long time ago. If only she hadn’t been so damn scared—but at least they’re finally here. 

And then Kiara’s gone. Calli opens her eyes to see Kiara looking down at her from where she’s perched on her lap, an indeterminable emotion in her gaze. 

Calli almost asks her to come back, to not waste time now that they have it, but her pride makes her bite her tongue. So she watches and waits. 

“I love you.”

Kiara’s voice is dead serious. Calli feels a jump in her chest at the words, but the edge in Kiara’s voice keeps her quiet. “It’s not just for the people, or the managers, or the job. I love you.”

_I know_ , Calli thinks. _I’ve always paid too much attention._

“And if you’re just drunk and messing around with me right now, I won’t forgive you. We can be friends after this even if you are, but this is cruel, Calli.” Kiara’s eyes are glistening. "You can’t keep—"

She glances down. “What are you doing?” 

Calli looks up from where she’d just pressed a light kiss to the back of Kiara’s hand. She blinks. She did it again—acted before she could think it through. "I—"

Calli wracks her brain, tries to find the core of the emotions she feels right now so she can just _tell_ Kiara already and stop making her wait and second guess and hurt, but she doesn’t have the words. Calli drops Kiara’s hand. Looks to the side. “I...dunno,” she mumbles. 

She feels Kiara settle back down on her lap. “Calli,” she says, and it’s not her normal voice but it’s not the voice from just a moment before either. It’s open and soft, and that’s what makes Calli turn her head just in time to meet Kiara’s lips once again. 

Calli makes a noise of surprise, but Kiara’s warmth washes over her and she closes her eyes all the same. Kiara’s lips are just so soft, softer than she could’ve ever imagined and her hair is so fluffy and it’s _Kiara’s_ body that’s pressing her into the couch right now; it’s _Kiara’s_ lips on hers, and now Calli feels drunk in an entirely different way. 

She lets out a heavy breath and then Kiara’s kisses are moving across her face, down her jaw to the hollow of Calli’s neck and _that_ is dangerous. Incredibly dangerous. 

Calli pushes against her but Kiara doesn’t seem to register it. “Kiara,” she manages, and it comes out more like a moan than anything—okay maybe it _was_ a moan—but it does get a dazed Kiara to pull back and meet Calli’s gaze.

Calli swallows at the look in Kiara’s eyes. Oh, how badly she wants to know what Kiara would’ve done next. But it’s not the time. “If—if you want to get any talking done tonight,” she pants. “We should stop.”

“Yeah,” Kiara says, the haze still in her eyes. “Mmhm. Talking.”

The naked want in her gaze brings heat rushing up Calli’s neck, up to her ears, spilling onto her cheeks. She pushes lightly against Kiara’s chest, ears burning. “Don’t make it weird, Kusotori,” she mumbles. 

That snaps Kiara out of it. The phoenix’s mouth falls open. “Well, I wasn’t the one who kissed the other first! I also didn’t just make that—that noise you just made!”

Kiara’s cheeks are also red, and the air has heated significantly. Calli wonders if it’s a result of her being flustered or...something else. 

She clears her throat loudly. “That’s not weird at all! It’s a perfectly natural reaction.”

“So it’s normal for friends to do this?”

Kiara has that hard look in her eye again—the one that tells Calli she’s bracing for impact; preparing for the worst. The difference is, this time, it feels like it might be a challenge. 

Calli lifts her head, gathers her will. 

“No.”

“No?”

It’s definitely a challenge. 

“Stupid Kusotori,” Calli says, trying to sell the act, but fondness seeps into the words regardless. "I've never met someone so freaking dense that they can go countless lifetimes without realizing..."

Realizing that Calli loves her, and it's really not that hard to notice. But saying that out loud goes against everything in the Mori Calliope handbook.

Kiara meets her eyes, completely still. Not even fidgeting. "If you can't say it, it's okay. I understand. I won't annoy you about it."

Kiara averts her gaze, and her gorgeous purple eyes seem a bit more shimmery than usual. Which is both not in the Takanashi Kiara handbook, and is the absolute opposite of what Calli wanted to happen.

"No no no no," Calli says quickly. "You misunderstand me." She pinches the bridge of her nose. "Guh."

Well, there's no going back now.

"You know how I said our relationship is...special?"

Kiara sighs. "Because you're Death and I will die and come back over and over again until this universe no longer exists? Yes, I remember."

"Yeah, well, um. It scares me."

Kiara's brow furrows. "What do you mean, it scares you? And what does that have to do with—"

"Look, Kusotori," Calli interrupts. "Imagine if I died, right now. But then I came back. And when you try to talk to me, you learn that I don't even remember you."

"Well, I would be pretty upset if you died in the middle of this conversation." Despite the subject, Calli is glad Kiara's voice holds a minor note of humor. "But that would make me very, very sad."

Calli looks at her for a moment, hopes she won't have to spell it out even though she knows she will. When Kiara says nothing, Calli lets out a sigh. "Think about it, Kusotori. I'm not the one who dies and forgets you, over and over. I never will be."

Kiara's lips part in a neat "o" and Calli knows she's gotten it. 

"And it's—the first time it happened, I—" Calli shuts her eyes. Takes a breath to ground herself, to not get swept up in the emotions of another time. "You know, your boy isn't easily scared, but that shit is terrifying. Especially when you get to thinking about it a lot more, and realize it only takes one time for that phoenix magic to not work as well as it should—or maybe it'll happen even if it works perfectly—and that person will forget you one day and just never remember again."

Something touches her cheek. "Oh, Calli," Kiara murmurs. The warmth from her fingertips bleeds into Calli's cheek, and Calli allows her head to lean into them. The gentleness of it all makes something burn in the back of Calli's throat. "Is that why you changed after the first time?"

Calli swallows. "You remember that far back?"

"I do." Kiara smiles at her. "You were so cute then, Calli."

Heat creeps up Calli's cheeks. "Thanks, I guess. But yes. That may have been a factor in why I act a little...different, now."

"I'm sorry," Kiara says. Her voice is quiet. "I feel so terrible, not noticing at all. I hate to think about you dealing with this on your own."

"Aw, Kusotori, it's okay," Calli says, although Kiara's words make her throat tighten up again. "It's—it's really okay, I promise, I'm strong enough—"

"Don't give me that bullshit, Calli!" The force of Kiara's outburst shocks Calli into silence. Her vision gets suspiciously blurry. "You don't have to pretend to make me feel better or to seem stronger or anything like that. It's just me." Kiara's voice gets softer. "And look—" Her thumb brushes under Calli's eye. "You're crying, _Liebling_."

"Ah," Calli says, and her voice is shaky. She scrubs at her eyes. "Been a while since that happened."

There's a beat of silence, where Calli keeps wiping at the damned tears that won't stop streaming down her face now that they've been acknowledged.

She's stopped by Kiara's hand curling around hers.

"If I haven't said it enough already, I love you, Calli. So much." Even with her blurred vision, Calli can see the pure sincerity in Kiara's eyes. "That means I want to deal with things together. That also means I won't ever forget you."

Calli lets out an incredulous watery laugh. The tears come a bit faster, even as something in her chest floats, up, up, up. "Stupid bird," she says. "You can't know that."

"But I do!" Kiara exclaims. "I've forgotten some things from my lives, but I've never forgotten anything about you."

"Aw, man." Calli whispers, half to herself. Her voice is embarrassingly high. The tears probably won't stop anytime soon.

"Besides," Kiara says with a grin. "If you always stay with me, there's no way I can forget you, is there?"

Calli half laughs, half sobs. To think that her years and years and years of assuming and agonizing and pining could have been avoided with a single conversation like this. With Kiara. Her beautiful firebird, who proved she would keep coming back for her over and over and over again.

"You're perfect," Calli says.

Kiara's thumb stops rubbing slow circles into the back of Calli's hand. "Eh?"

"You're perfect," Calli repeats. "And radiant, not just literally, but in the way that you light up a room when you walk into it." Kiara flushes. "Or enter in a Discord call. Whatever. You get me. You're also the most caring person I know, and I've been learning to be a better person from you for over a thousand years." 

"H-hold on, Calli," Kiara's so red she looks like she might combust. "I don't—"

"No, I won't hold on, because I've just realized I'm quite stupid for waiting this long to say this in the first place, and I really want to fix that right now."

Kiara just gapes at her, struck dumb.

Calli continues on, despite the intensifying heat in her cheeks. "I love the stupid little noises you make. And how clingy you get in your sleep. And your laugh. And your orange soda. And—"

Her cheeks are on fire. Oh, God, she's gonna be so embarrassed. Calli clears her throat. "Guh. You."

Kiara's got a hand slapped over her mouth. "Me?" she says past it, amusement saturating her tone even as her eyes shine.

"Yes, you!" Calli rolls her eyes, though she knows it can't have any effect whatsoever after what she just said. "Please tell me you got it this time. Don't make me wait for thousands of years again."

"Okay, first of all, I love you and I understand, but that was completely your fault and you know it, Calli." Kiara drops her hand and she's smiling harder than Calli's ever seen her. Calli's heart stutters. "But you love me."

Calli swallows. Coughs into her fist. "I guess I do."

"And my orange soda."

Calli flushes all the way to the tips of her ears. "Now, look here, Kusotori," she says. "I can take it all back, you know. I can take it back! If you're gonna make fun of me, I have a ticket to the Underworld right here, thanks to my trusty scy—"

A pair of warm lips on Calli's forehead makes her brain shut off for a second. "Uh," she squeaks.

"You are very, very cute," says Kiara.

If she was in an anime, steam would be coming out of Calli's head right now.

"Um."

"Wow." A snicker. "You said you liked forehead kisses, but if I'd known they make you react like this I would've done it way earlier."

Calli is torn between _please do it again please_ and _shut the fuck up Kusotori_ but she can't actually say either because her heart is kinda melting. Just a little.

"I'm going actually kiss you now, though."

"Yeah," Calli says, voice still high. "Yeah, that's a great idea."

And she does, and Calli does melt. She can feel the smile in Kiara's lips pressed against hers and her pulse under Calli's hand, cupped under her jaw and it's real and Kiara is here. She's here she's here she's here.

With a sudden bout of clarity, Calli realizes that even if Kiara does forget her—which Calli is starting to think she won't have to seriously worry about—Calli thinks it's worth it just to be together with her like this in this lifetime.

Kiara pulls back with a giggle. She rests her forehead on Calli's. 

Calli stares into Kiara's skull pupils and wonders, once again, how she ended up here.

"Hey," she breathes.

"Hi," Kiara beams. "I kinda can't believe this is real."

"Mm. Me neither."

Lightning quick, Kiara darts forward and plants a kiss on Calli's nose. Calli lets out a strangled noise and claps her hands over the spot. "What are you doing, Kusotori?" she sputters.

Kiara gently pries Calli's hands off her nose, cradling them in her own. "I want to remind you this is real," she says, eyes shining earnestly. "And that I'm never going to leave you alone. Not in the way that matters."

Oh man. If Calli could die, this would definitely be the death of her. "Uh, cool. I mean, I do appreciate that. I appreciate it a lot."

Kiara giggles at her. Then her lips are pressing a kiss into Calli's cheek. Then her jaw. Then the side of her lips. And her nose, again.

Then her kisses speed up, until she's practically assaulting Calli's face with them. "Ah—Kusotori!" Calli laughs. "Stop it!"

Kiara pulls back enough to say a petulant, "No," and goes right back to peppering Calli's face with kisses.

Except now Calli can't stop laughing, loud and breathless. And soon Kiara starts giggling herself, which turns into her full-blown laugh.

When the worst of their laughing fit is over, Kiara collapses on top of Calli and buries her nose in Calli's neck with a last giggle.

"You," says Calli. "Are ridiculous."

"And you love me~" Kiara singsongs. She turns her head so it's resting on Calli's shoulder and presses a chaste kiss there.

Calli pauses, then brings her arms up and around Kiara's midriff. She hears as well as feels Kiara's content hum at the action.

"Thank you," she whispers.

Kiara lets out a soft laugh. "What do you mean?"

"I dunno," Calli says. She feels warm, head to toe. "I just wanted to say it."

For staying with her, is probably what she means. Calli's just so grateful. It feels like there's something glowing in her chest.

"You sound so happy," Kiara murmurs. "I love it."

Yeah, okay. Maybe she's just...happy.

"I think," Calli says. "I am."

Of all the things to marvel at in this life—from going from being a reaper to a world-famous virtual streamer, to finding herself with a group of consisting of a phoenix, a time-traveling detective, an ancient shark, and an eldritch priestess—Calli somehow finds herself the most struck by how the phoenix snuggled into her neck right now has somehow stayed with her for millennia. Calli had always thought that being alone was just a fact of her job. And when she looked at her sensei, she knew it to be true. Death's role is a lonesome one.

But here Kiara is, spitting in the face of something that Calli thought to be a fact of the universe.

That's just how she is. Calli feels her lips grow into a smile. She presses her nose into the top of Kiara's head and inhales, feeling light.

"What are you smiling about?" comes Kiara's voice, muffled in Calli's neck.

"Oh, nothing new," Calli says airily. "Just how badass you are."

All of a sudden, Calli is a lot warmer. She looks down to see Kiara burying herself further into Calli's neck, ears red.

"If you say things like that," Kiara mutters. "I might just go up in flames."

Calli holds her closer. "And I'll be right here when you come back to me," she says sweetly.

A kiss presses into her skin. "And I'll always come back,” says Kiara, voice soft.

A thrill runs through Calli when she realizes that they have countless lifetimes ahead, to be spent just like this.

Calli's always hated cycles. Stagnancy bores her—what's the point of existing if you can't grow? She seeks out new things whenever she can; it's why she's not out in the world reaping people's souls anymore. 

But she loves the idea of this one. And Kiara's pretty damn special for that.

She kisses the crown of Kiara's head and feels proud at the squawk she gets in response. 

Yeah, she definitely should've done this a long time ago.

But when she has forever ahead of her, to be spent with the most special being in the universe at her side...

Really, how can Calli have any regrets? 

**Author's Note:**

> calli is so cute i am going to combust.
> 
> anyway wow i had so much fun writing this...i did it to get a feel for how to write takamori because they live in my head rent free, but it became something a bit more. they made me stop writing my symphogear fic, which is definitely something.
> 
> i love these dorks a lot and am not ready for today's concert....gonna get a bit emotional but it's okay!! because as we discovered here, takamori is forever :)
> 
> edit: i need to recover oh my god


End file.
